The present invention relates to an analyzer for trace component analysis of samples such as blood, serum, plasma or urine, especially an automatic analyzer for biochemical or immunological trace component analysis of such samples.
In the field of clinical diagnostics, analyzers are used widely for detection and determination of specific components in blood, serum, plasma or urea samples from examinees to provide useful data for diagnoses of diseases. Among analyzers, multichannel biochemical analyzers determine saccharides, lipids and proteins by using enzymatic reactions and chemical reactions, and multichannel immunological analyzers determine hormones and tumor markers by using specific interaction between antigens and antibodies. These analyzers usually perform biochemical reactions and immunological reactions in individual disposable reaction cups to avoid contamination among samples or reaction liquids. Prefilled reaction cups already containing a reagent for a specific component in samples to be measured are usually disposable too.
Instrumental analyses as mentioned above usually cover more than one specific component in a sample to make good use of samples from examinees or to secure more accurate diagnosis based on multiple components.
To speed up and facilitate numerous operations necessary for determination of multiple specific components in samples, automatic analyzers have been used routinely. Typical automatic analyzers in present use add given amounts of samples to prefilled reaction cups already containing reagents for measurement of specific components and, optionally, incubate and wash the reaction cups for determination of various specific components in each sample.
Further, a full-automatic biochemical analyzer equipped with an automatic loader which selects a prefilled reaction cup containing a reagent proper for a specific component and places it on a tray on a conveyer (JP-B-3-58666) and an automatic analyzer with a conveyer which automates operations from conveyance of a sample cup to output of the results once the operator places the sample cup and the reaction cup (JP-A-3-51762) are known.
Analyzers like these usually sucks a given amount of a sample from a sample cup into a reaction cup while conveying the sample cup and the reaction cup on two separate conveyers to set off the reaction for determination of a specific component in the sample. However, the structural complexity of an analyzer having two conveyers due to movable parts indispensable to the conveyers makes its maintenance difficult and leads to increase in its production cost and size. Therefore, conveyance of a sample cup and a reaction cup by one conveyer has been suggested.
In biochemical and immunological analyses, it is common to determine more than one specific component in a sample to make good use of samples from examinees and to secure more accurate diagnosis based on multiple components. For such multiple analyses by an analyzer in which sample cups and reaction cups share the same conveyer, a sample cup containing a sample placed at an arbitrary position on the conveyer is followed by as many reaction cups as the measurements to be done with the sample, namely the specific components to be measured in the sample so that the sample and the reaction cups to be used for the analysis of the sample are conveyed successively. If it is necessary to dilute or treat the sample beforehand, a diluent cup or the like is interposed between the sample and the reaction cups behind the sample.
An analyzer sucks a given amount of a sample from a sample cup into a reaction cup on a moving conveyer, if necessary after preliminary dilution or pretreatment of the sample with a reagent, and if necessary adds other reagents, to set off the reaction for determination of a specific component in the sample. Because the sample cup and the reaction cups move on a single track on the same conveyer, the conveyer has to position reaction cups just under the nozzle by making quick motions immediately after a sample is sucked from the sample cup containing it at the same position so that the sample sucked from the sample cup is ejected into the reaction cups behind the sample cup. Therefore, the conveyer has to make quicker motions more frequently to increase the through put speed.
If the motions of the conveyer get quicker and frequent, it is virtually impossible to load additional sample cups or reaction cups on the conveyer while the analyzer is in action, and the conveyer has to be scaled up to accommodate a lot of cups, sacrificing the advantage easiness of downsizing and simplification of such an analyzer. In addition, it is quite difficult to conduct so-called xe2x80x9ccut-inxe2x80x9d analyses of samples in need of urgent analyses.
The first object of the present invention is to provide an analyzer available in a small size and with simple structure by using a single conveyer which conveys both sample cups and reaction cups intermixedly at a moderate speed which allows loading of additional sample cups or reaction cups on the conveyer in action
As described above, an automatic analyzer with a single conveying means such as a conveyer is obtainable in a small size and with light weight and reduced costs, while it is not free from the possibilities that the operator loads sample cups or reaction cups in the wrong places or the wrong reaction cups unsuited to the specific components to be measured by mistake.
Thus, misplacement of sample cups or reaction cups on the conveying means can make it impossible to conduct intended analyses even without causing trouble in the subsequent automatic analyses and can end up with the wrong results because a reaction cup for a specific component is used for a different specific component.
Accordingly, the second object of the present invention is to provide an automatic analyzer which eliminates operational mistakes such as misplacement of sample cups or reaction cups on a conveyer by an operator as mentioned above and even detects, if happen, such operational mistakes.
To attain the above-mentioned first object of the present invention, the present invention provides an analyzer which determines a specific component in a sample while conveying a sample cup containing the sample and a reaction cup containing a reagent which reacts with the sample, which is characterized in that: (1) the analyzer comprises a conveyer which conveys sample cups and reaction cups intermixedly on a closed track, (2) the analyzer comprises a reactor which is equipped with a thermostat which maintains the reaction cups at a predetermined temperature, a trashbin which collects used reaction cups, an up-down nozzle unit which sucks in and out a predetermined amount of a sample and a reaction cup lift which carries a reaction cup between the conveyer, the reactor and the trashbin, (3) the nozzle unit and the reaction cup lift reciprocate on a straight track, driven by different drive units separately or by the same drive unit, (4) the trashbin is placed on the straight track of the reaction cup lift, (5) at least part of the closed track of the conveyer is straight and overlaps the straight track of the nozzle unit and the reaction cup lift, and (6) the straight part of the track of the conveyer accommodates at least two cups.
To attain the above-mentioned second object of the present invention, the present invention provides an automatic analyzer which determines a specific component in a sample while intermixedly conveying a sample cup containing the sample which present sample identification information which identities the sample in the sample cup and a reaction cup containing a reagent for determination of the specific component in the sample which presents specific component information which identifies the specific component by one conveyer, wherein the automatic analyzer comprises; (1) a storage means which stores test order information including specific component information to identify at least one specific component to be measured for each sample, (2) a first identification means which reads the sample identification information presented by each sample cup, (3) a work list preparing means which selects the specific component information which identifies at least one specific component in the sample to be measured from the test order information stored in the storage means on the basis of the sample identification information for the sample read by the first identification means and prepares a work list consisting of the sample identification information for sample and the specific component information identifying the specific component(s) in the sample to be measured, (4) a loading order determination means which determines the order in which sample cups and reaction cups are loaded on the single conveyer from the work list, (5) a second identification means which automatically reads the specific component information presented by a reaction cup conveyed by the conveyer, and (6) a collating means which compares the specific component information read by the second identification means with the determined order and indicates whether or not they are matched.